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A custom song my friend wrote for my wife and I in 2004 based on our 15 year relationship before asking her in marriage. Song Title: Waiting Patiently.

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Song Title: Hold On – I asked Niseem to help raise money for my cousin’s foundation to save a  young girl living with cancer. Thanks to Niseem who offered his time to produced this song.

“It Is A Good Thing To Give Thanks Unto The Lord…”

[As tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we need to spend time with family. I am going to take the weekend off. I will start the Fred List back up on Monday morning. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Thank each and every one of you for your prayers and words of encouragement. - Dennis]

Psalm 92:1:

“It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto your name, O Most High.”

In preparation for Thanksgiving, I found myself coming back to this verse. It was a praise song we sang in the early 1970’s. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. That means that it is beneficial to us to take time out of each day and to thank God. It takes our focus off the world around us. It makes us look for God working in our lives.

God is working in each life, every day. The problem is that God is subtle. He does not drop major miracles on us all the time. We would come to expect them. He moves quietly. He works behind the scenes. He encourages here. He slows us down there. He lifts us up. Someone says something we need to hear. Something does what it’s supposed to do. Something doesn’t act the way we expect it to.

God is all around us, literally. But He is not calling attention to Himself. He goes about His work in a quiet and unpretentious manner. You have to stop and look at things taking place around you to spot His fingerprints. If you want to find God, He will be there. As we saw in one of the Fred List entries earlier this week, “We will find Him when we search for Him with our whole hearts.” Jeremiah 29:13 [paraphrased]

Fred Palacios – for whom this study is named – had a favorite expression: “coincidence is not a kosher word.” He would tell me that the rabbis point out that there is no Hebrew word for coincidence because the rabbis do not believe there is such a thing as coincidence. It is a subtle proof that God is working in our lives.

We need to stop for a moment throughout the day and look for the evidence that God is there – that God is working. Unless you look, you will miss it.

I wrote a poem back in my high school days called The Red Fingers of Morning. It was a compare and contrast poem. The character was going about his daily duties:

“The red fingers of morning
Flex across glowing skies
The coffee pot is bubbling
In the skillet a scrambled egg fries…”

We see things in nature that speak of God’s handiwork. Our main character gets in his car and drives to work. He goes about his job. He comes home and watches television. All the while birds are singing, the sun is setting, the moon comes out and the stars glow overhead. The poem ends with the comment:

“…Isn’t it rather odd,
He tosses and turns in his sheets
And wonders “Where is God?”

Unless we look for God, we will not find God. He does not beat down the door with a sledge hammer. He is there working to make things happen.

That is what this verse is all about. It is a good thing – it is beneficial for us – to take the time out during our busy day and look for God. Don’t stop looking for God until we see evidence that He is there working. Recognize that God is involved in your life. When you find Him there, thank Him. As we see more and more of God in our lives – it is a skill we have to develop – we will do more than just thank Him. We will get excited about His work. We will start to sing praises to Him.

We celebrate Thanksgiving once a year. It’s good that we do it. Many people would never stop and look at their lives and realize all they have to be thankful for unless we shut the entire world down for one day and made them do it. Some people do not even do it then. The Psalmist called for us to make every day a Thanksgiving. Giving thanks makes us realize we are not alone. Giving thanks makes us realize we have friends and family. Giving thanks makes us focus on the positive rather than the negative.

Last year at Thanksgiving, I quoted the verse from Paul where he said, “I thank God for you all.”  I still do. Bev’s cancer has made me even more thankful for God and for you. Each year God brings us through another trial. It might be financial. It might be health-related. It might be relationships. It might be career-centered. It might be the loss of a loved one. But each year God brings us through it. He brings us through it by His Holy Spirit and through those He places around us – you.

So let me take a moment to thank God for all he has done, all He is doing, and all He is going to do. I want to quote I Thessalonians 5:24:

“Faithful is He who called you, who will also do it.”

We can count on the faithfulness of God. We can count on friends and family because those are the ones God uses to bless us through and with.

Thank you…Thank you all.

–Dennis–